Kohbukan Sisu Judo & Jiu Jitsu - The History of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Mitsuyo Maeda: The Founder of Modern
Day Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Maeda was born in Aomori Prefecture in
1878. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture
on Japan 's main island. He moved to Tokyo
when he was about 18 and began judo. The
first record of him entering the Kodokan
is in 1897. He had a natural talent for
judo and moved through the ranks very quickly,
establishing himself as the most promising
young judoka in the Kodokan. In the mid-1800's
in Japan , there were a large number of
styles ("ryu") of jiu-jitsu (sometimes
spelled "jujitsu"). Techniques
varied between ryu, but generally included
all manner of unarmed combat (strikes,
throws, locks, chokes, wrestling, etc.)
and occasionally some weapons training.
One young but skilled master of a number
of jiu-jitsu styles, Jigoro Kano, founded
his own ryu and created the martial art
Judo (aka Kano-ryu jiu-jitsu) in the 1880's.
One of Kano 's primary insights was to
include full-power practice against resisting,
competent opponents, rather than solely
rely on the partner practice that was much
more common at the time.

In 1904 he was given a chance to go to
the U.S. with one of his instructors, Tsunejiro
Tomita. The first and only place they demonstrated
judo together was at the U.S. Army academy
in West Point . Contrary to what has been
published, they never went to the White
House nor did they ever meet the American
president at the time, Teddy Roosevelt.
It was the Kodokan great Yoshitsugu Yamashita
who taught Roosevelt judo at the White
House and later engaged in a match with
a wrestler nearly twice his size at Roosevelt's
request, but this match took place at the
U.S. Naval academy in Annapolis . Yamashita
won with an arm bar and was given a teaching
position at the academy for what was then
considered a great deal of money.

The demonstration at West Point did not
go over well. Tomita and Maeda started
off with kata, but the Americans did not
understand what they were seeing. Maeda
was challenged by a student wrestling champion
and a match ensued. A misunderstanding
occurred when the student pinned Maeda
(wrestling style pin) and thought he had
won. Maeda, not familiar with wrestling,
continued to fight until he got his opponent
in a joint lock and made him tap out. The
students then wanted to see Tomita fight.
Since he was the instructor, they figured
he must be the better of the two. The truth,
however, was that Tomita was in his 40's
and past his prime. He had brought Maeda
along to help with demonstrations, but
had not intended to engage in challenge
matches. He had no choice, and hesitated
when his much larger American opponent
rushed and tackled him. Tomita was caught
under the weight of the bigger man and
forced to give up.

Tomita and Maeda parted ways with Tomita
heading to the West Coast and Maeda staying
in New York for the time being. Maeda began
teaching at Princeton University part-time
when he won some challenge matches there.
He also taught in New York City , but the
Americans did not take to the Japanese
style of teaching and he often found his
students did not stay long. Maeda was approached
to engage in a match for money. Since his
income was limited at the time, he accepted.
This, however, was a violation of Kodokan
rules which prohibited members from engaging
in matches against other styles. Maeda
did not appear to be worried about this
and thus his career as a fighter began.

It is widely believed that Maeda was expelled
from the Kodokan for participating in matches
against fighters from other styles, and
later in life, Maeda himself lamented to
other Japanese he met during his travels
that he feared this was true. The author
states that there is no record of him being
expelled and this is nothing but a groundless
rumor which still exists today.

Maeda is said to have fought over 2,000
matches in his career, many unrecorded.
He traveled throughout the Americas and
Europe , taking on all comers. He was only
about 165 cm tall so he his opponents were
usually far larger than he was. Nonetheless,
he became a legend in the fighting world
and his name is still well known amongst
Japanese settlements in the Americas .
Maeda was not undefeated. He lost two matches
in the catch-as-catch-can world championships
held in London . In this tournament, Maeda
entered both the middleweight and heavyweight
divisions, advancing to the semi-finals
and finals respectively. In matches where
judo gis were worn, however, Maeda was
undefeated.

Maeda thought of judo as the ultimate
form of self-defense. To him, western arts
such as boxing and wrestling were only
games with a set of rules. Maeda's strategy
in an anything goes fight was to set his
opponent up with an elbow or low kick.
He would then go for a throw and then finish
his opponent off on the ground with a choke
or joint lock.Maeda was never afraid to
prove the superiority of judo. Once while
in London , he saw an article in the paper
where a Russian wrestling champion was
quoted as saying that wrestling was better
than judo. He tracked the wrestler (who
was much larger than Maeda) down and issued
a challenge on the spot. The wrestler refused
on the grounds that he was misquoted and
could not risk losing to a non-wrestler.
Maeda also wanted to challenge Jack Johnson,
the world heavyweight champion at the time,
but figured he would never accept such
a challenge.

The ring name "Conde Koma" came
about when Maeda was in Spain in 1908.
Maeda heard about another Japanese in Spain
who was billing himself as Japan 's number
one. As Maeda was already famous, he knew
this judoka would leave town if he discovered
that Maeda was somewhere near. Maeda considered
this a problem. At the same time, he had
other problems, mainly financial. To describe
his own state, Maeda used the Japanese
verb "komaru" which means to
be in trouble or to be in a fix. He thought
about calling himself Maeda Komaru, but
decided it didn't have a good ring to it.
He dropped the final syllable and just
went by the name "Koma". A Spanish
aquanitance suggested adding the word "Conde" which
means count. From then on, Maeda went under
the name "Conde Koma". In later
years, that became part of his legal name.
(The author never says whether Maeda was
able to challenge the so called judo champion).

Maeda continued his travels. In 1915,
he ended up in Brazil in a town called
Belen [the capital of Para state in Brazil
]. He considered this to be paradise and
settled down here permanently. He still
engaged in challenge matches and became
famous throughout the region. He also returned
to Cuba , Mexico , and the U.S. when the
opportunity arose, but Belen was to become
his home.

Enter the Gracies

When Maeda emigrated to Brazil , he was
helped a great deal by the Brazilian politician
Gastão Gracie, whose father George
Gracie had emigrated to Brazil himself
from Scotland . In gratitude for the assistance,
Maeda taught jiu-jitsu to Gastao's son
Carlos Gracie. Carlos in turn taught his
brothers Osvaldo, Gastão Jr., Jorge,
and Helio.

In 1925, Carlos and his brothers opened
their first jiu-jitsu academy, and Gracie
Jiu-Jitsu was born in Brazil .

At this point, the base of techniques
in BJJ was similar to those in Kano 's
Judo academy in Japan . As the years progressed,
however, the brothers (notably Carlos and
Helio) and their students refined their
art via brutal no-rules fights, both in
public challenges and on the street. Particularly
notable was their willingness to fight
outside of weight categories, permitting
a skilled small fighter to attempt to defeat
a much larger opponent.

They began to concentrate more and more
on submission ground fighting, especially
utilizing the guard position. This allowed
a weaker man to defend against a stronger
one, bide his time, and eventually emerge
victorious.

In the 1970's, the undisputed jiu-jitsu
champion in Brazil was Rolls Gracie. He
had taken the techniques of jiu-jitsu to
a new level. Although he was not a large
man, his ability to apply leverage using
all of his limbs was unprecedented. At
this time the techniques of the open guard
and its variants (spider guard, butterfly
guard) became a part of BJJ. Rolls also
developed the first point system for jiu-jitsu
only competition. The competitions required
wearing a gi, awarded points (but not total
victories) for throws and takedowns, and
awarded other points for achieving different
ground positions (such as passing an opponent's
guard). After Rolls' death in a hang-gliding
accident, Rickson Gracie became the undisputed
(and undefeated!) champion, a legend throughout
Brazil and much of the world. He has been
the exemplar of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu technique
for the last two decades, since the early
1980's, in both jiu-jitsu competition and
no-rules MMA competition.